Diverse Perspectivehttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com
In time we hate that which we often fear.Thu, 14 Dec 2017 02:29:23 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://s2.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngDiverse Perspectivehttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com
A stroll through Seoulhttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/a-stroll-through-seoul/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/a-stroll-through-seoul/#commentsSat, 28 May 2011 23:11:46 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=481]]>Nothing is more beautiful than a clear day of summer in Korea. I love the start of summer. After long, freezing, and chilling time of winter, at last summer has started in South Korea. Though it has started long time ago but, damn it, I was too busy with my studies that I hardly had time to notice it:).No doubt Korea is a beautiful country but its beauty magnifies hundred times in summer.

The last semester of university always brings responsibility and tough study times with a mix feelings of fear and happiness. I’m passing through this time. Last week was the toughest of my master studies. After finishing the final presentation of master thesis, I decided to visit as many beautiful places in Korea as possible.

To start my expedition, I planned a day with three friends: Aamir, Umair, and Sarmad, to visit those parts of Seoul that attract the maximum tourists. After scrutinizing through a list, our guide Aamir finalized three places: Seoul tower, Myoeongdong, and Han river. We had no other option to say yes as the plan seemed perfect. I wanted to include Itaewon to this list but it was not possible to go everywhere in one day.

So here we go on a stroll through Seoul.

L to R: Sarmad, Aamir, and Umair. I’m behind the camera.

It was a beautiful day of summer, 25th of May to be exact; though it was not a sunny day but the weather was clear.

1) Seoul Tower: Our first destination was Seoul tower. The best thing about Seoul tower is, you can see most of the prominent parts(yeah I’m a bit exaggerating) of the city from Seoul tower in just one view.

We took the cable car to reach the tower. You could also hike if you are not a lazy bone like us.

There are some sitting places in the surrounding of this tower where people were sitting and enjoying the fresh breeze of summer when we got there. Some people also took the elevator inside the tower to reach the peak but we preferred to fool around here.

The city of Seoul from Seoul tower

Love locks at Seoul tower

2) Myeoungdong: Our next stop was myeongdong. It is one of the busiest shopping places of Seoul. Its streets are always full of people.

A busy street of myeongdong

We had a fish burger at burger king there. Meanwhile Sarmad and Umair were busy doing shopping, when aamir and I were enjoying window shopping. After everyone got tired with his business, we headed for our final destination, Han river.

On the way to Han river

3) Han river: The beauty of Seoul is incomplete without Han river. We spent one and half hour there lying on the bank of the river.

A view of Han river. On the left is Banpo bridge while Seoul tower could be seen in the front view.

The effect of cool breeze, the soothing sound of water hitting the shore, the beautiful colors of cars and buildings’ lights making reflections in river water, and the illuminating view of Seoul, altogether hypnotized our tired minds.

(12) To check whether ns is installed successfully or not, test it by entering $ns

If you are prompted with %, it means your installation is successful otherwise check your environment variables, specifically compare the versions of otcl, nam etc in ./bashrc with those in your ns-allinone-2.34.

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/relation-betwen-life-and-nature-%d8%b2%d9%86%d8%af%da%af%db%8c-%d8%a7%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%81%d8%b7%d8%b1%d8%aa-%da%a9%d8%a7-%d8%b1%d8%b4%d8%aa%db%81/feed/5gulzameenkhanNever Let Me Gohttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/never-let-me-go/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/never-let-me-go/#respondTue, 23 Nov 2010 10:26:27 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=200]]>“The memories I value most, I don’t seem them ever fading. I lost Ruth, then I lost Tommy but I wouldn’t lose memories of them.”, Kathy narrates in the last chapter of the book.

“Never let me go” a beautiful novel by a Japanese-born British writer, Kazuo Ishiguro, I read about this book in the Time magazine. Then few days ago i was in my university library wandering for some novel when I saw it again, so I borrowed it and started reading it.

I didn’t understand the book in the start but as i moved on forward, it captured my interest and became a page turner. I was amazed with the story, the expression of emotions and feelings, and last but not the least the well written depiction-style of Ishiguro. I finished the novel yesterday with its deep impact on my mind which I would try to portray in the following lines.

The story is about three friends: Kathy, Ruth and Tommy. They are clones and study at Hailsham, a secluded boarding school in England. Hailsham is an ideal school taking great care of its students’ health and creativity.The students are reminded time and again of how special they are. Their ultimate aim is to donate organs. Life at Hailsham is as normal and as ideal as it should be in childhood and then at teenage with all the studies, fun, arts and sports competitions, fairy tales, horror stories about the surrounds of their school, night chats in dorms, secret sharing, and all that. Tommy is a moody boy; Kathy is a kind of person who agrees to whatever others choose for her, she has a soft corner for Tommy but never approaches him; Ruth is competitive and always tries to split the bond between Tommy and Kathy in their love triangle. Ruth and Tommy remain as a couple during this time.

As they grow into young adults, they go to cottages where they interact with the external world and experience the adult activities. Once the clique visits the Norfolk where the veterans tell Tommy, Kathy and Ruth about the rumor of deferral, if two people from Hailsham fell truly in love , they are deferred two to three years of being donors. Kathy could not find any stable relationship during this time. In this stage the mixed feelings of jealousy, love , attachment, misunderstandings and friendship are often exchanged between the clique.Once there is a fight among Tommy, Kathy and Ruth and Kathy left the cottages as a result.

Now Kathy becomes a carer; and Ruth and Tommy become donors. The group splits apart and after a long time they meet again. Now Kathy is the carer of Ruth. They arrange a trip to visit a boat during which Ruth confesses and apologizes for coming in between them and requests them to seek deferral. Ruth completes her life after second donation. Kathy, now, takes care of Tommy. They visit Madame’s to get deferral; Tommy also brings his arts with him to prove their love. They also meet Miss Emily there one of their old teachers from Hialsham. Miss Emily tells them the reality of Hailsham and denies the rumor they have been hearing since their childhood. She tells them how Hailsham was set up to prove to the world the fact that clones are like normal human beings.All this talk drags them in a boundless despair. Tommy completes after his fourth donation and Kathy is ready to start donating organs.

The novel ends after Tommy and Ruth are no more in this world and Kathy is standing on the shore weeping helplessly. She is left all alone with the memories of the time she spent with her dearest friends.

“Never Let Me Go” is not about science fiction. Though it has asked some stinging questions about the daunting reality we are facing ahead but, according to the author himself , science fiction is just a tool to deliver the story.The actual story is about life and its realities. The clones die in their 20s or 30s but they see all those phases of life which we face in 70 or 80 years. So clones can better explain the strange realities of human life in a short span of time.

The author has unfolded the reaction of human beings to small and tiny experiences of a day-to-day life and then the process of how these tiny feelings and expressions meet up together to form big and firm beliefs which drag us to take life-changing decisions.

The story is about how our emotions are injured in this harsh world.How do we plan our future and then how do we scream over our broken dreams. Life is not all about roses neither it’s all about thorns. But we often imagine our life to be a perfect and ideal decorated with what we want. The real world is not much like as we want to see it. If one accepts the life with all its alarming realities, then he can handle the life in a better way.

The novel has nothing to do with telling a tale but it rather gives a picture of real life. We can apply the story to our lives and fit it into how could we get the best from this short life.

The characters of the novel could have rebelled but they didn’t and did what they were supposed to do; one should always accept one’s fate and follow it.

Ishiguro says accepting one’s fate is a form of heroism and he calls it the Japanese creed.

A movie has also been made on this book. I haven’t seen it yet. I am looking forward to watch the movie, “Never let me go“, as soon as it is released here in South Korea.

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/never-let-me-go/feed/0gulzameenkhanNever_Let_Me_GoHappiness only real when sharedhttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/happiness-only-real-when-shared/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/happiness-only-real-when-shared/#commentsThu, 18 Nov 2010 14:15:57 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=171]]>I heard this sentence from the movie “Into the wild” and it went deep and deep into my heart until it was absorbed into my soul and became a core part of my thoughts.

“Into the wild” , I watched this wonderful movie a few days ago and it amazed me so much so that i watched it three times listening to all the dialogues very carefully and seeing the enchanting natural scenes over and over.

It is based on the biography of Christopher McCandless; for the most part it depicts the expeditions of McCandless into the wild from 1990 to 1992.

Jon Krakauer wrote a book “Into the wild” in 1996 and Sean Penn after wards directed a movie on it in 2007 with Emile Hirsch starring as McCandless.

The first thing that is notable about the movie is the selection of natural scenes that have been filmed with great care and delicate sense.

Then comes the story which indicates the human desire for adventures and traveling. The story also shows “how important a family is in one’s life.”

Into The Wild

The most important aspect of the movie is its dialogues…

“I read somewhere… how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong… but to feel strong.”

“Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness… give me truth……..”

“Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.”

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.”

“The core of mans’ spirit comes from new experiences.”

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”

“You are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God’s place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things.”

“The freedom and simple beauty is too good to pass up…”

“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;

There is a rapture on the lonely shore;

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar;

I love not man the less, but Nature more…”

Lord Byron

“I have lived through much and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet, secluded life in the country with the possibility of being useful to people.” Leo Tolstoy

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/happiness-only-real-when-shared/feed/1gulzameenkhanInto the Wild Some Quoteshttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/my-quotes/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/my-quotes/#respondSun, 14 Nov 2010 17:03:38 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=141]]>1) Be light and be happy.

2) The more you feel regrets, the more you become coward.

3) Your friends fall in love with you when you tell them how big looser you are; and are jealous of you when you tell them how successful you are.

4) Religion brings hope of future and diminishes fear of unseen.

5) Everyone thinks at some point of time that he/she is very different than other human beings.

6) Jealousy makes one’s mind dull and blind.

7) Jealousy invites stupidity.

8 ) Forgiveness is the strongest foundation of tolerance.

9) Good memories, a good book, a good movie and a good blog help you a lot when you are depressed or angry.

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/my-quotes/feed/0gulzameenkhanFirst Realism then Optimismhttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/first-realism-then-optimism-2/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/first-realism-then-optimism-2/#commentsMon, 20 Sep 2010 12:45:03 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=116]]>Every morning, when I sit on my computer to read the newspaper, I went through a deep grief and anger which always leave me with numerous stinging questions about myself and my homeland. I usually open the newspapers of two countries: Pakistan as it is my homeland and South Korea where I currently live for my studies.

When I compare the headlines of Pakistani and Korean newspapers, I came across the feelings of whether I should be optimistic or realistic and what does it mean to be optimistic or realistic?

The Korean newspapers read the news of latest technology, the spikes of their booming economy and their action-based will to become the Asian Tigers whilst the newspapers of Pakistan are full of news about the huge scale killings of innocent human beings through suicide attacks, bomb blasts, drone attacks and other inhuman activities ; people crying of the extreme hunger with no drinking water, clothes, shelter, jobs and basic human needs; unreachable rise in the prices of everyday commodities; politicians at their throat of one another to grab more and more opportunities for corruption; violation of basic human rights; mismanagement and chaos at each and every level across the board.

Whenever our politicians, political analysts and scholars are asked for their comments, they ended the discussion either by blaming others or give us the future fantasies that everything would become better in future.

The intellectuals in their debates always emphasis the bright side of the picture and give us the lessons of optimism. It is beyond the shadows of doubt that optimism acts as a backbone in the progress of a nation but only that optimism which is based on reality.

We, the Pakistani, as a nation do nothing and hope for a broad level change to be happened automatically. If someone tries to point out our weaknesses, we stop him by exaggerating our qualities and ask him to be optimistic. Now my question arises from this point, should this general behavior be named optimism or we as a nation have addicted to day dreaming so that we could close our eyes to the ground realities.

If one checks the performance of the current government, it is not different from the previous civil as well military eras: The scale of corruption is growing by leaps and bounds; the judiciary itself fights for the justice so the justice for a common man is out of question; the highly soaring prices of everyday commodities are out of reach even of a middle class family; in political arena the ever-red blame game continues; the rich get richer and the poor get poorer; there is no planning to cope with the future whether it’s the in the form of war against terror or devastation of natural disasters; the media is banned if it dares to show the real image of the government in the same way as was done by the dictators: Pervaiz Musharraf and Zia ul Haq; there is no one to follow the Quid’s philosophy of faith, unity, and discipline.The story is the same; only the characters are changing.

Being an individual, the behavior of most of the people is not much different from the government: There is no unity, discipline, and political awareness amongst the people. Most of the people living in Pakistan don’t know their basic human rights. We talk a lot about the change and when it comes to practical grounds, by and large we just sit on our hands. For the most part, the educated people in Pakistan don’t cast their vote at first or otherwise go with the flow of religion, creep, family or cultural waves.

We do not believe in the power of individual. We hesitate to believe in truth, honesty, cleanliness, and basic moral deeds both at individual as well as collective levels. We are trained from the very childhood to think as Suni, Shia, or Ahmedi; Pukhtoon, Punjabi, Sindhi or Baloch. Where from the thinking of Pakistani would arise then? Why we have forgotten the struggles of our forefathers for making Pakistan?

Today, Pakistan is under the clouds of troubles and we are facing enormous challenges….

Now is the time to rethink our thoughts and actions. We have to accept that we are not on the road that will lead us to the prosperous Pakistan which Allama Muhammad Iqbal dreamed of and Quad-e-Azam struggled for. We have to change our behaviors as well our actions. We have to come out of the day dreaming of fantasy-based optimism and rethink our thoughts and deeds in accordance with the demands of ground realities. As a bottom line, we should first be realistic and then optimistic.

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/first-realism-then-optimism-2/feed/11gulzameenkhanEchoes of the Memorieshttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/echoes-of-memories/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/echoes-of-memories/#commentsSat, 18 Sep 2010 10:04:25 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=83]]>It was 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. I don’t exactly remember the time but it was the start of a night – the nights would start this time for me back then – neither i remember the day and the date but perhaps it was a normal and comfortable night in the winter of late 80’s or early 90’s. I was lying on a combined bed with my younger brother in the oldest and biggest room of my grandfather. The walls of the room were made entirely of mud and its roof was made of wood and grass; the roof had turned black due to the continuous smokes of fireplace in the room over the years.The old dusty lantern was spreading its small, dusty, calm and fading light around the corner where it was hanging against the wall near the fireplace; the rest of the room was almost dark. My grandfather and my parents, sitting around the fireplace in a corner, were taking green tea. They were drawling very slowly with a long and a bit loud sounds of sips of the green tea. It was raining outside. The soothing sound of the rain drops, against the roof, was dominating the drowsy talks and the long and loud sips in the room. I can never forget that sound of rain. It still echoes in my mind.

It is 8:00 p.m , the 10th of September in 2010. I am sitting in my room of dormitory. It’s raining outside and the rain drops are making a sweet sound against the outside shade of my window. I am taking a cup of green tea. I am intentionally making long and loud sips. My computer is playing a melodious song ,very slowly.

Today is our thanksgiving, the Eid. I am far away from my siblings and my parents. My grandfather is no more in this world. Right this moment, i am all around with my childhood memories………

I am thinking of the present rain and then the rain before this rain and then the rain before that and so on….

I am tracking back and back in the past to figure out how many rains do I remember…..

I am going back and back , and the earliest rain that echoes in my mind is……….It was 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. I don’t exactly remember the time but it was the start of a night – the nights would start this time for me back then – neither i remember the day and the date but perhaps it was a normal and comfortable night in the winter of late 80’s or early 90’s……

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/echoes-of-memories/feed/6gulzameenkhanShare the feelingshttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/share-the-feelings/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/share-the-feelings/#commentsFri, 17 Sep 2010 09:01:54 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=66]]>We were one, the three people were sharing the same feelings. When the two representatives of the Hanyang university’s weekly newspaper asked me, “Why did you set up this camp?”; I said, “To help those people who are poor, weak and helpless“; i saw into the eyes of the two representatives (a guy and a girl) one by one and it was the moment when we three people were sharing the same feelings of grief and sympathy for all those unlucky people affected very badly by the worst ever floods in Pakistan.It was Friday, the last day of a 3-day donation collecting camp which we set up at the Hanyang university in South Korea to collect donations for the flood victims in Pakistan. I was one of the volunteers working for this great cause.

Though it was not easy at start to set up such a camp but when the intentions are sincere and strong, nothing can hinder your way; so we set up the camp with the coordination of the university administration, the students union and the volunteers (Korean and Pakistani students). We collected enough money for the flood victims.

It was a wonderful experience for me. During these three days, dozens of students and professors shared their oneness with me. I felt connected with every one who came to the camp, donated money and wrote messages to the flood affected people. The students would come and would offer their volunteer intentions to help in collecting the donations. It was then when we all would feel as one – tightly connected with one another and with all those flood victims whom we don’t know, but whose sorrows and troubles do we share.

It was the first time in my life when everyone would appreciate me and my friends. I felt so good. People who passed by our camp would throw a smiley look – full of appreciation and the shared feelings of being connected.

I was convinced in these three days that the world, we live in, is not that bad as we often talk of it. There are still lot of people who want to feel the troubles of others and help them in heeling their sorrows. By and large, everyone wants to be connected with all human beings on our small planet. But sometimes we are very wrong in making our minds about all collective people based on our tiny bad experiences- with few people- occur at some unlucky moments of time.

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/share-the-feelings/feed/6gulzameenkhanFlood Donation CampStudents Writing their Messages to the Flood VictimsAn unprcedented flood hits Pakistanhttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/an-unprcedented-flood-hits-pakistan/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/an-unprcedented-flood-hits-pakistan/#respondTue, 17 Aug 2010 15:32:48 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=30]]>Recently, unprecedented and devastating floods have ravaged Pakistan, displacing millions of people. “The region’s worst flooding in 80 years has affected 20 million people and killed over 1,600, according to the UN”. The flood killed huge number of live stocks; destroyed crops, homes, communication lines, roads and bridges, making access to remote areas even more difficult.
This natural calamity is worst ever in current times and feared to be more disastrous than Haiti Earth Quack or Tsunami. In this crisis Pakistani nation is struggling to find shelter, food, drinking water and emergency medical supplies.
Survivors are also threatened by waterborne disease from contaminated wells and widespread flood waters. Cholera and Gastroenteritis threaten the lives of over 100,000 children and many more are facing serious health hazards in the wake of outspread of diseases, according to UNICEF.
Immediate and long-term relief is required for survival and rehabilitation.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he has never seen anything like the flood disaster in Pakistan after surveying the devastation and urged foreign donors to speed up assistance to the 20 million people affected, according to the The Huffington Post.

In these difficult times, the flood affected people in Pakistan need all of us to stand by them and be part of the “Help Humanity” by donating whatever we can.

]]>https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/an-unprcedented-flood-hits-pakistan/feed/0gulzameenkhan11Begining of a new lifehttps://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/begining-of-a-new-life/
https://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/begining-of-a-new-life/#commentsFri, 22 Jan 2010 21:40:14 +0000http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/?p=3]]>After a long process of crucial thinking and having survey about my future career, i took the decision to go for MS in Computer Engineering. Luckily I got a Pakistani government scholarship and got admission at Hanyang University in South Korea. A new life in a different culture and with strange people(everything was strange for me that time) started when I arrived in South Korea.

It was August 26, 2009. I had already some friends in the university where I got admission and truth be told, they helped me a lot in settling down but still it took me some time to got familiar with the new environment.

Now, when I am writing this post, I have been much more acquainted with the Korean people and their society. My first semester has been finished successfully and these days I have winter vacations. During this time I have come across many wonderful experiences and enjoyable trips, which I would share on my blog.